The Member of Parliament for North Tongu, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has said the National Democratic Congress (NDC) will restore the commemoration of AU Day as a statutory holiday when it comes to power.
Parliament recently passed the bill which was seeking to scrap AU and Republic Days as public holidays and introduce January 7 as Constitution Day.
Mr. Ablakwa believes the move forms part of President Nana Akufo- Addo’s plans to diminish Ghana’s first President Kwame Nkrumah.
“Under the direction of President Akufo-Addo, today the 25th of May which marks Africa Union Day or Africa Liberation Day as was reintroduced by President John Agyekum Kufuor as a public holiday in 2002 has now been degraded and therefore no longer a public holiday.”
“How embarrassing that seven years down the lane, in his home country, Ghana – President Akufo-Addo continues to pursue an agenda of diminishing Africa’s man of the millennium.”
Mr. Ablakwa was, however, quick to add that Mr. Akufo-Addo’s agenda for scrapping the holiday will fail, given that the NDC intends restoring the holiday when it comes to power.
“President Akufo-Addo should know by now that his agenda has already failed and just as President John Agyekum Kufuor restored full commemoration of AU Day, so shall a future NDC Government restore Ghana to its pride of place; considering that we have already served notice in Parliament.”
AU Day or Africa Day is the annual commemoration across the continent of the day the Organisation of African Unity, now the AU was founded.
Below is the statement from Mr. Ablakwa
Under the direction of President Akufo-Addo, today the 25th of May which marks Africa Union Day or Africa Liberation Day as was reintroduced by President John Agyekum Kufuor as a public holiday in 2002 has now been degraded and therefore no longer a public holiday.
It’s a real shame that Ghana, the country considered to be mother of the Africa Union due to the vision and sacrifices of our founding President, Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah who first convened the All African Peoples Conference of 1958 here in Accra to lay the foundations of continental unity five years before the OAU was born in 1963 will now be set on a path by President Akufo-Addo where our Pan-African leadership and the inspiration we offer black people all over the world now stands undermined.
Kwame Nkrumah’s imposing bronze statue stands tall at the AU Headquarters in Addis Ababa to remind all Africans and people of the world about Nkrumah’s pioneering role. I recall with great pride how in January 2012, Osagyefo’s statue was unveiled in Ethiopia by a powerful Ghanaian delegation led by Prof. John Evans Atta Mills and which comprised former President Jerry John Rawlings, Hon. Allan Kyerematen and Madam Mary Chinery-Hesse representing President John Kufuor and then the designer and sculptor Dr. Don Arthur. Of course, Prof. Francis Nkrumah and Samia Nkrumah represented Nkrumah’s immediate family at that quintessentially proud Ghanaian moment of history.
How embarrassing that seven years down the lane, in his home country, Ghana – President Akufo-Addo continues to pursue an agenda of diminishing Africa’s man of the millennium.
President Akufo-Addo should know by now that his agenda has already failed and just as President John Agyekum Kufuor restored full commemoration of AU Day, so shall a future NDC Government restore Ghana to its pride of place; considering that we have already served notice in Parliament.
On this day, I invite us all to ponder over what W.E.B. Du Bois told the assemblage of the All African Peoples Conference convened by Nkrumah in December 1958: “If Africa unites, it will be because each part, each nation, each tribe gives up a part of the heritage for the good of the whole. That is what union means, that is what Pan-African means.”
It is my prayer that President Akufo-Addo will listen to Du Bois and give up a part of his family heritage for the sake of meaningful African Unity. And shall we all learn to give up what has been holding back the full glory of this great continent all these decades.
Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa
MP, North Tongu
Ranking Member, Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Source: Daily Graphic
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so ndc have nothing for Ghana only restoring AU holiday? then you are going to be in opposition till you die
WHEN ?
ABLAKWA OR WHWEVER THAT SHARP TEETH IS, IN WHAT WAY WILL RESTORING THE AU HOLIDAY BENEFIT YOU AND GHANAIANS? ND IS THIS ONE OF YOUR POLICIES TO WANT COME BACK TO POWER? POOR SOUL. HE DOESNT EVEN KNOW HE IS GONNA BE IN OPPOSITION FOR THE NEXT 20 YEARS. BY THEN NDC WILL BE NO MORE. CPP WILL BE RE-ORGANIOZED AS THE ALTERNATIVE PARTY TO CHALLENGE THE NPP----UP, CPP-GOOD FOR GHANA!
Observer eho are the original Ghanaians? the original Ghanaians are those with majority in population, those with more regions which Akufo Addo family are included so who are the original Ghanaians? you? then ask your parents the history of your ancestors! ***barred word*** you think you are even a Ghanaian and calling yourself original and do you understand the name Ghana and why it was chosen? ***barred word*** if you are the original why didn't you give Gold Coast a new name after independence?squatters ! who told you you are the original else your ndc would have been in power ! 2020 we will repeat the dose we now have 9 regions out of the 16 ! ***barred word*** ! Ablakwah should wait after 2076 when ndc is left with bones like the cpp !
Samuel, do not worry because original Ghanaians do not and will not recognize those akufo families, they did nothing good for Ghana for ghanaians to to recognize. This npp family government are just trying their luck, it will not work ever. Some people in Ghana have been brainwash like asanka by akufo addo,
That seems like one of the new policy directions of the NDC in 2020. They include review Free SHS, sacking EC chair and all others appointed by Akufo-Addo, restore AU holiday, cancel NABCo, Cancel nurses and teachers allowances, abrogate all road contracts, cancel new 6 regions (Oti Region first on the list), stop all 1D1F and 1V1D under construction, go back to IMF, and in fact all initiatives started by the NPP. What a party with ZERO ideas. Who will in his/her right senses bring back such a group of National Destroyers Congress (NDC)?
Mr MP, rather think about how you are going to survive in opposition for a looooonnnnngggggg time. You can restore the holiday when you come back to power in 2064.
Is it a campaign promise? What change will it bring to Ghana? Please think of better things and not this. We dont need it.
Words cannot describe Abrakwah's s.t.u.pi.d.t.y
Good for nothing MP,instead of putting up alternative policies and programs for Ghanaians to decide which party have good programme for Ghana, you are thinking about holiday. Daawa konko.